This regular season featured many teams that did not have a history of great football squads jumping into contention for playoff berths. Several of those teams made it in to the post season. However many of the old reliable schools struggled to survive and the few that did performed well when it counted. The first round of the District One AAAA post season found six of the eight top seeds losing their home field contests. Council Rock South and Garnet Valley at the first and fifth seeds survived while old guard lower seeds North Penn, Pennsbury, Neshaminy and Coatesville advance despite their place in the bracket.
The AAA District One found the top and lower seeds splitting the four games. Academy Park’s defeat of Springfield and Strath Haven’s win over Marple Newtown accounted for the lower seed victories. They will now face top seed Pottsgrove and third ranked Phoenixville in the second week.
The playoff week one predictions went moderately well as this humble writer went 3-2 as North Penn, Strath Haven and Neshaminy all won as predicted, while Pennsbury topped Abington and Phoenixville outlasted injury riddled Interboro to account for the two prediction setbacks.
The last five years, this future teller has a 250-98 prognostication record while going 36-19 for this season
The big question for this week’s playoff action is how well will the remaining top seeds perform on their home field in second round action. The top of the AAAA bracket is Council Rock South and they face a tough match against the Cougars of Downingtown East. QB Kyle Lauletta threw four TD passes last week and the Cougar offense exploded for a 44-14 first round win over Downingtown West. Council Rock South suffered just one defeat in the regular season and will be tough to beat at home. The Golden Hawks coach Vince Bedesem depends on QB Brian Donnelly to engineer a complex triple option offense. This week belongs to the top seed.
Council Rock South 28 Downingtown East 24
The second round of AAA post season features another top seed fighting to advance as the Pottsgrove Falcons host the red hot Strath Haven Panthers. Running back Robby Curtin has been a work horse for coach Rich Pennypacker and he will need a great game to out gun the Panthers. The Strath Haven defense faced down Marple Newtown’s Cimmirrow Moat last week for a 31-7 win. This contest may well be decided by defense. If that is true look for Haven lineman PJ Plummer and Drew Platt to make the difference.
Strath Haven 20 Pottsgrove 14
The rest of this week’s fearless forecast:
North Penn 31 Neshaminy 21
Pennsbury 26 Coatesville 24
Academy Park 27 Phoenixville 21
